Southern Maryland- Buy & Hold Environment

[Elizabeth Nourse]

I've found a number of deals that appear to cash flow very well in Southern Maryland- nice buy and hold properties that clear the 1% guideline easily and won't take too much cash to turn.  I'm considering picking up a few for my personal portfolio or I will offer them to some investors that are my clients.   

Can anyone here share what vacancy and demand they've experienced in these markets for single family homes recently?  In particular, I'm looking at deals in St. Mary's County and southern Calvert County.  I need a better handle on vacancy rates, and delinquency/ collection loss experience.  My current small portfolio is in Northern Virginia and they do well there with vacancy (less than 2%), but the prices make it harder to cash flow as strongly.  

Also, if anyone here is doing Section 8 in these markets, that would be really helpful to know about as well-  I'm curious to see how well those are doing.  These areas/ houses strike me as ideal for affordable housing, if the market is tight in that price bracket.  

Any help would be appreciated!  

Liz

[Chris Seveney]

Liz
I have been looking in st Mary's county as well and when I visited many of the homes they are in really rough shape and/or in D areas. I am still looking in that area but have been told by another investor when I was down there that rents are down and they are a lot of rentals on the market right now that have been on for a while. This isn't to say there are not any deals out there and I am curios to see opinions of others.